


Icarus

by TJ_Dragonblade



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-24
Updated: 2011-02-24
Packaged: 2017-10-26 20:41:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/287637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TJ_Dragonblade/pseuds/TJ_Dragonblade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chuunin exam arc - Tenten tries to cope with her defeat</p>
            </blockquote>





	Icarus

**Author's Note:**

> **WARNING:** Broad spoilers for Part 1 of the manga  
>  From the prompt of [this poem](http://community.livejournal.com/naruto_meme/11417.html?thread=1713049#t1713049) on the artiste meme at naruto_meme.livejournal.com  
> Drafted: 2/18/11

When Tenten woke up in the hospital, and realized that she'd lost, it was the end of her world.

She'd gone into the Chuunin exam with such high expectations. Extreme self-confidence was par for the course when one was Gai-sensei's pupil, and she'd had plenty of it when her turn came in the match-ups. She knew she was good. She knew she was ready. She knew she could take on the blonde girl from Suna and come out victorious in the end.

But instead, the blonde girl from Suna had wiped the floor with her, and in a humiliatingly short span of time.

Tenten lay in her hospital bed, aching and broken while skin and bones slowly began to knit back together, and wondered if there was any point to continuing her training once she had healed. Everything she believed in had been left in pieces on the floor of the arena.

The world at large took little notice of her identity crisis, however, and life went on. The exams continued, while she healed. The village was attacked. Sandaime-sama was killed. Konoha made peace with Suna. And gradually, Tenten began to realize that what she'd suffered was really rather minor.

Her humiliating defeat didn't matter in the least, not to the village as a whole, not in the grand scheme of things, not to anything or anyone but her, when it came down to it.

The world _hadn't_ ended with her defeat.

She decided, then and there, that there was no reason that _her_ world had to end with it, either.

The day she was released from the hospital, she went straight back to training, more determined than ever.


End file.
